Today's News

SATURDAY, FEB. 16
• Kingston First Baptist will have a Saturday women’s conference from 9 a.m. to noon in the sanctuary of the church at 215 N. Kentucky St. Tickets are $5 each; registration begins at 8:30 a.m. in the church atrium. Humorist and author Kay DeKalb Smith will be the speaker. Call the church office at 376-6041 for details.

• Dogwood Baptist Church, Kingston, will have a singing beginning at 7 p.m. The White Oak Trio and others will be singing. The church is on Dogwood Valley Road.

There’s an old saying in baseball that you can never have too many left-handed pitchers.

That leaves college coaches searching far and wide for the commodity, but Roane State head coach David Lane didn’t have to look far for one as Tuesday afternoon he signed Kingston southpaw Ben Redden to a scholarship.

The Harriman Middle School boys basketball team didn’t achieve their ultimate goal of winning the East Tennessee Class AA Sectional Championship, but Allen Hickman’s squad came mighty close as they dropped a 47-29 decision Saturday afternoon in Pigeon Forge against a powerful squad from Grace Christian Academy.

TVA plans to license two parcels of land in the Swan Pond area to Roane County for emergency-services purposes.
“The first parcel is a portion of 1428 Swan Pond Road, reaching from the intersection of Swan Pond Circle and Swan Pond Road, to just beyond the former house location,” TVA Senior Vice President Robert M. Deacy Sr. said in a letter to County Executive Ron Woody. “TVA agrees to license approximately 4 acres of this property for use as a volunteer fire department.”

Roane County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Tim Phillips said the inmate who jumped from the balcony in one of the jail’s housing pods last week is Dustin Sargent.
He and Elizabeth Cureton were arrested on Feb. 1 for promotion of methamphetamine and simple possession.
The two were in a car that allegedly contained morphine pills and meth-making materials.
The incident at the jail happened on Feb. 5.
Phillips said Sargent didn’t provide a motive for jumping.

By LEE H. HAMILTON
A few weeks ago, in his second inaugural speech, President Obama waded into the longest-running argument our history offers.
“Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time,” he said, “but it does require us to act in our time.”
He had just laid out a rationale for government action on infrastructure, protecting the security and dignity of people, climate change, inequality, the strength of arms and the rule of law.